The present invention relates to a device for the combined electropharmacological treatment of the bladder and the urethra.
The electropharmacological treatment better known as Electromotive Drug Administration (EMDA) relates to the transfer of solutes (drugs) into the body tissues by means of an electromotive force. In particular, the term "electromotive drug administration" includes two separate physical processes: iontophoresis and electrophoresis.
Devices suitable to perform a iontophoretic treatment aimed at the bladder or at the urethra are currently adopted, such devices using a bougie inside which there is an electrode that is appropriately connected to a source of electric current. One or more drugs in solution are introduced through said bougie proximate to the region to be treated, and their ions are then activated by producing an appropriate electric field by means of a low-voltage current source and by applying to the body of the patient, proximate to the region to be treated, an external secondary electrode suitable to close the electric circuit.
The same Applicants have solved the problem of concentrating the action of this therapy in a point by providing a device for intracorporeal iontophoresis, the particular aim whereof is to treat deseases affecting the bladder, filing for this device a related Italian patent application no. MI/21107 on Jul. 27, 1990 which discloses a tubular body that is internally crossed, in a position that is substantially concentric with respect to its longitudinal axis, by a stem-like electrode which forms, at its distal end, a sort of helical spring ending with a spheroidal ground electrode; the body of the bougie is appropriately affected by multiple openings which are suitable to allow the instillation of the drug in the organ to be treated and the flow of the current for activating the ions of said drug.
This iontophoretic device has the drawback of using a bougie that is intended to specifically treat the bladder alone and is not suitable to simultaneously treat affections of the prostate, an organ which is often involved, together with the bladder, in affections of the lower urinary tract.
Currently there is no specific device for the electropharmacological therapeutic treatment of affections involving both the bladder and the prostate. For this purpose it is only possible to adapt iontophoretic devices by subjecting the patient to the insertion of two different bougies, each of which is shaped so as to be suitable for treating the target organ. This treatment has the drawback that it causes, due to the sequential insertion of the two bougies, painful physical microtraumas in tissues that are already the seat of inflammatory processes.
Furthermore, it is in any case necessary to replace the internal electrode, the conducting portion whereof is limited to the region to be treated and is in any case unable to generate differentiated intensities of current in the two different organs. This maneuver for replacing the electrode entails both discomfort for the patient and an increase in the duration of the bougienage for the patient.